Home Page Download Times Insight Into Usability

Nielsen Online

The Nielsen Company

www.nielsen-online.com

News Release

Home Page Download Times Provide Insight Into Consumer Usability Of Online Retailers: Nielsen Online

Auckland, 12 March 2009 — A recent study by Nielsen Online identifying vast discrepencies in download times for major retailer home pages may provide a valuable insight into whom is likely to remain more successful in the online space.

Nielsen Online’s General Manager, Ivan Fuyala says website download speed has never been more important than now with every customer click critical.

“Website accessibility and viability is a key business success metric,” he says. “If consumers can’t reach you quickly online, it won’t take long before they start looking to competitors instead.”

Fuyala says Nielsen Online’s dMeasure service regularly monitors the quality of webpage delivery from an end users perspective and provides a reality check to the site owner in terms of how their customers are experiencing their online services. Having an understanding of the time it takes to complete the buying, sign up or download process is a critical success measure for any publisher.

“The dMeasure service emulates the browser request of a specified URL,” he explains. “And in the case of New Zealand retailer home pages, the average response time to download all items of the home page during the month of February was 5.4 seconds.”
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Fuyala says LV Martin had an excellent response time while major retailers such as Noel Leeming and Whitcoulls both fell well below the average. “The positive response of 1day.co.nz is probably a reflection of the limited amount of information they display on a daily basis, but from these results, they obviously do it very well,” Fuyala continues. The 1-day site offers three special discounted products for sale every day.

Ezibuy, Gameplanet, Trade Me, Torpedo7 and dse.co.nz (Dick Smith Electronics), all perfomed above average while Foodtown, the Warehouse, Woolworths, Fishpond and Mitre10 all scored between 5.53 and 5.97 seconds.

The following graphic and table lists the retailers measured with the less time being positive and the longer download time negative:

Click to enlarge

URL Response time (secs)

1day.co.nz 1.6
lvmartin.co.nz 2.74
ezibuy.co.nz 4.11
gameplanet.conz 4.11
trademe.co.nz 4.24
torpedo7.co.nz 4.8
dse.co.nz 5
foodtown.co.nz 5.53
thewarehouse.co.nz 5.69
woolworths.conz 5.75
fishpond.co.nz 5.85
mitre10.co.nz 5.97
thedeal.co.nz 8.19
Whitcoulls.conz 8.42
noelleeming.co.nz 9.57

About Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com.

About dMeasure
dMeasure is an innovative web site monitoring tool of The Nielsen Company that reports on the quality of web page delivery from a customer’s perspective. It essentially provides a reality check to any company that relies on the Internet for conducting business on how their customers are interacting with their online services.

About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

ENDS

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